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Andora
Andora, or Andorism, is the primary religion of the Divenic and Avamoric people, the native Human inhabitants of Draconia and Avamoria respectively. Andora is now not commonly found, but it is fiercely upheld by the few remaining Divenic and Avamoric communities that remain largely untouched by the outside world. Andora is an animistic and dualistic religion which bears a striking similarity to Naturakhva and the ancient form of Kadinto, as well as the ancient Dark Elvish religion (of which we know little about) named Eshanda. It is thought that all of them share their origins in a common ancient mythology which predates the Annihilation. Andora does not involve any real "worship", but it is based on the reverence of the two greatest spirits, which are Ana, the Lord of Peace, and Dora, the Lord of Chaos. There is additionally a theoretically infinite number of lesser unnamed spirits, but Ana and Dora are the most powerful and the most revered. Although the spirits are typically referred to by masculine pronouns, they do not have genders, as they do not have physical bodies. Neither Ana nor Dora are explicitly good nor evil; Ana ultimately embodies the prime virtues and desires peace and harmony, but he is obsessed with order. Dora, on the other hand, is ultimately responsible for all the evil in the world, but not because he himself wills evil, but because he upholds free will above all and gives creatures the liberty to choose their fate. Although Ana is more associated with peace, Dora is more associated with love, for it is Ana that wants people to live well but ultimately Dora that has the most love for people and wants them to live. Ana, the Lord of Peace, is responsible for taking souls from the material world to the immaterial world (explained below) once their physical bodies die, and he is also responsible for punishing the souls of evildoers. Dora, the Lord of Chaos, is responsible for rewarding the souls of the virtuous. A punished soul is not condemned to be punished forever, as the repentant may be begrudgingly pulled out of Ana's grasp by Dora if Ana deems that sufficient punishment has been inflicted. Afterlife Andorans believe in a fairly simple cosmology of two realms; the Material world and the Immaterial world, usually referred to in English as the Materium and the Immaterium. The Materium is the universe in which we live, and the Immaterium is the space outside of that, the realm the spirits call home, where the laws of time and space do not apply. Andorans believe that all living things possess a soul, and that soul passes into the Immaterium when the thing dies. A distinction is made between three classes of soul: the Inanimate, the Amoral, and the Moral. How the spirits in the Immaterium treat the soul once it passes there depends upon the class of the soul and the soul's actions during its time in the Materium. Inanimate souls are the souls of living things which are very basic, chiefly regarding plants and fungi. The organism itself does not have to be strictly inanimate, as most sessile animals are considered inanimate, as are insects (but not spiders). Inanimate souls are simply incapable of committing either good or bad deeds, and as such they are neither punished nor rewarded when they pass into the Immaterium. Amoral souls are the souls of living things which are capable of basic reasoning but are incapable of true moral judgements. This covers the majority of animals. Amoral souls are considered to be capable of performing good and bad deeds, but these deeds are performed out of a reaction to the environment rather than any virtue or malice on the part of the soul. Amoral souls are punished or rewarded in the Immaterium, but they are judged according to their environment; for example, a hungry wild predator will not be punished for killing prey, but a trained house pet will be punished for needlessly killing another creature. This again is further broken down by the nature of the animal; for example a cat is judged less harshly on its treatment of other animals compared to a dog. Moral souls are the souls of intelligent living creatures which are capable of advanced reasoning and moral judgement - i.e. people. Moral souls are not only capable of performing good and bad deeds but of recognising which deeds are good and bad, both amongst the deeds of others and the deeds they have performed themselves. Moral souls are punished or rewarded in the Immaterium according to the weight of their good works against their sins. Ana and Dora Ana, Lord of Peace, and Dora, Lord of Chaos, are named as being among the first of the spirits, although this is perhaps a misleading description given that the spirits exist outside of time and are also stated to be eternal and uncreated. Some theologians interpret this as meaning that Ana and Dora are the eternal sources of all the other spirits, in the same way that the Father is the eternal source of the Son and Holy Spirit in the Christian Trinity. Ana and Dora were dissatisfied with merely being amongst other spirits in an immaterial plane, so Ana created the Materium and began to populate it with features and creatures. Dora, however, constantly interfered, disrupting Ana's clean lines and regular patterns, giving the uniform creatures diverse and seemingly random features. Ana grew increasingly frustrated and demanded that Dora stop, however Dora answered that if everything were so regular and sanitised then there was no point in creating at all. He did, however, agree to stop interfering with what Ana had made, but cunningly spoke his words so as to not make any promises to not interfere with future creations. Ana made the Titans and the people, gifting the latter unmatched intelligence amongst his creations and the former the divine magical power to safeguard them. Dora, however, was greatly saddened at how these supposedly intelligent creatures were made so wastefully, forbidden to think for themselves and without a single shred of creativity or emotion. He therefore gave all the creatures of the Materium the greatest gift of all; free will. Immediately, there was chaos. The Titans fought each other and the people fought each other, and most destructively of all, the Titans and people began to fight against each other. To prevent the Titans overpowering the people, Dora gave a few of them the same magical power the Titans wielded, and hostilities between the two groups began to simmer down - but hostilities within the two groups only grew more intense. Ana was enraged, and he blamed Dora for ruining his creation. He was tempted to destroy it all and begin again, but Dora went down to the Materium and informed the inhabitants of Ana's plan. They were furious, terrified and dismayed, and Ana was heartbroken to see his creations so full of hatred for him. He wept and angrily berated Dora for turning his creations against him, but Dora spoke the words that have become the iconic symbol of the entire Andoran creation story: "They are not perfect. They hurt each other, they hurt themselves, they murder and plunder and rape and lie, but they are free. A life where there is harmony but you are a slave to the will of your master is nothing; a life where there is much darkness but your soul is your own is everything. If you want them to love you, real love cannot come unless they choose it." Andorans now believe this to be speaking against slavery in all its forms, although historically slavery was practiced by Andorans. Ana only grew more enraged at this, and he began to lash out both at Dora and his creations, before quickly becoming horrified at himself and retreating away entirely. However, Ana had started a cycle of violence in the Materium and had not remained present to keep order, and the creatures began to destroy themselves with increasing bitterness. It can be said with certainty that this event is the Annihilation. Dora pleaded with Ana to return, but refused to apologise for what he had done, believing it to be right. He therefore had to watch on in horror as the inhabitants of the Materium slaughtered each other, until Ana returned from his self-imposed exile and imposed order once again upon the Materium, humbly apologising to Dora and coming to an agreement with him about how the Materium should be ruled. Order could not be enforced like a slave-master with the whip in the Materium, but neither could there be an absence of authority, so the two agreed that the Materium should be the realm of free will and the Immaterium should be the realm where souls are judged for how they used their free will. An uneasy peace has reigned since then. Ana and Dora rule together, but that is not to say they never conflict, and their influence over the Materium can sometimes clash.